1 posts from September 23, 2013

September 23, 2013

Every Monday Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher holds his weekly press conference to discuss the week's opponent, the previous weekend's film and whatever else he feels like talking about that afternoon. We cover it in a weekly piece called, "Mondays with Jimbo."

Jimbo Fisher stopped by to discuss Boston College with reporters on Monday and provided plenty of other insight about the state of Florida State football along the way. Fisher started by giving his obligatory run-down of this week's opponent before going into specifics about his own team.

BC, per Fisher, is going to bring a big physical brand of football to try to challenge Florida State in the trenches. If that sounds like the last couple games - it's because it is.

"They had a week off to prepare well. Steve (Addazio) does a great job coaching, offense (and) defense. They’re very physical on offense – very good offensive line. Probably one of the best ones we’ve seen," said Fisher. "Their (running back) Andre Williams is averaging over 100 yards a game, is very physical, big, 230-pound guy that breaks tackles, he's strong."

Addazio announced on Monday that he has moved BC's week up a day so that they will get their work in early and be well-rested for "a very physical game" come Saturday.

"Defensively, they cause you a lot of different looks. They trap a lot and bring a lot of different looks," added Fisher. "You’ve got to be very well prepared in order to see the looks and do things, they challenge you there."

The Eagles have changed some things up since last year defensively too, rendering last year's game-film a little less than useful. Fisher was well aware of this:

"They’ve changed defensively and they’ve changed on offense. It’s not like playing them a year ago. You can go back and evaluate the players, but not the scheme."

More From Jimbo:

##- Levonte "Kermit" Whitfield is about to take over as the primary kick returner for Florida State:

"I’ll probably leave him back there," said Fisher. "We’ve got (Lamarcus) Joyner, we can rotate Karlos (Williams) and all those guys going in the game and different things. You’ve got all those guys doing so much that it’s good to give them a break and I think Kermit is very natural at it. He’s very good at it and I think he’s mature enough and been around long enough to understand what we want.

"I’ve been very pleased with his progress; he made a very nice catch in the game. I think he’s progressing nicely and he’s very explosive and has a chance to make big plays."

##- Both Jalen Ramsey and Matthew Thomas have made an early impact on the defensive side of the ball. Ramsey made his third career start on Saturday and Thomas notched his first career sack. On Monday, Fisher took a moment to commend both:

“Matthew Thomas had a really nice game – got a couple sacks and some pressures. He’s a natural in space. See, Jalen his versatility and size at corner or safety and he can play both and we’ve been training him at both very easily. He’s so smart. He’s got a chance to be a very good player – he and Matthew both.”

##- Fisher took a minute to joke about three of the next four teams Florida State faces receiving bye weeks prior to the week they play the Seminoles:

“That’s not very nice, is it? It gives teams more time to plan on you and watch film and learn tendencies and things like that. You have to be aware of those as a coach and make your adjustments and do the things you’ve got to do, but they’ll be rested up and healed and they’ll bring their ‘A’ game, there’s no doubt. That’s another challenge we have to face. But, that’s the name of the game.”

##- Fisher thinks that the first few opponents have prepared the Seminoles for BC by virtue of the power run games they've attempted to attack the Seminole defense with:

“I don’t think it hurts. You definitely get used to playing on the blocks and taking things on and being physical and we do “good-on-good” every day and try to be physical. From that standpoint, it does help.”

##- Fisher also talked at length about Devonta Freeman, the highlight came when he discussed Freeman's love of the game:

"That kid, now, there is not one play that isn’t full speed. I’ve never, ever seen him take a play off. If he does, you call him over and say ‘what’s the matter?’ Something is wrong and something isn’t right because it’s obvious because he isn’t going 1,000 miles an hour and having fun – he’ll be running and smiling and hit something and be like, ‘hey, I love it, Coach.’

"He and (Lamarcus) Joyner will run into each other and be laughing, two knuckleheads.”

##- Finally, it took him 20 minutes (once again) but here's what Jimbo Fisher said about his redshirt freshman QB:

“I’m very proud of the plays he made. I thought he competed well in the game. I thought he started the game well. He got balls to where he needed to get them to," said Fisher. "Again, we had a couple of balls that we put on the ground by guys who have been playing off the charts. That’s ball. It’s like sometimes you shoot a basketball and it goes in and then it kicks out. That’s part of it.

"I thought he played well. There were one or two things I thought he tried to get a little too aggressive with. But I would rather say ‘whoa,’ than ‘giddy up.’ I like the aggression, the going at it. I thought he kept his poise in the game. Every time he came to the sideline he was articulating what was going on in the game, what he saw or ‘hey, we can do this, or we can do that.’ He had his ideas, but I thought he played a very solid football game. I did not think he played poorly at all. I thought he played very well."

"A couple things – I’d rather have a decision on this side instead of that side. I say that all the time, with quarterbacks and the decisions they make in the game and as many passes you give them, that’s always going to happen. You’re never going to be, that’s exactly the right read 100 percent of the time because there are so many options they have. There could be better options than the ones you use, but that’s part of it. I thought he played well and competed well in the game. Kept his poise. For a young guy sometimes when they don’t make a play they’re used to making, they just move on to the next play and he played the next play and moved on. Proud of that.”

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